Daily Archives: June 22, 2008

My cold is over. My stomach ache is gone, I got a haircut and I feel a lot better. Tomorrow I’m leaving Perth and taking a bus/train combo down to the town of Margaret River. Margaret River is about as far South West as you can possible get in Australia. In Margaret River, I will be as far from home as I will probably ever be on my trip; about 10,750 miles (17,200km) from Minneapolis. The antipodal point of Minneapolis is in the Indian Ocean, so this is the closest piece of inhabited land to it.

My trip to Margaret River is for a particular purpose, of which I’ve determined that come hell or high water I am going to accomplish. The podcast has changed some of the priorities of what I see and do while traveling. Much of my travels have been your typical run of the mill “go to X and see Y” variety. I’ve done a lot of things from bungee jumping to swimming with whale sharks, but I haven’t gone out of my way to meet particular people or see particular events. I’m going to start to do that and I’m going to start with this trip to Margaret River. If all goes well, you’ll see the results in a week or two.

I should also make note of the new video by “Where The Hell Is Matt”. He’s the guy who put the video on YouTube of him dancing all over the world. He has a new video up which he has spent the last 14 months working on. I subscribe to his blog and it seems like much of his last year has been traveling for the purpose of making the video, rather than his original video which was just a side project of his travels. I found it interesting because I’ve been to some of the exact spots which he danced. (In particular, the spot in Tonga where he got hit by waves. This is a photo I took at the Tonga blowholes). I get a lot of reactions from people in the vein of “oh, just like that dancing guy”, so I figured I should let everyone know about it.

*The US equivalent of $1m Australian dollars at current exchange rates

Most of the growth and development of Australia occurred during the reign of Queen Victoria in the 19th Century. Given the length of her rule, there are an abnormal number of things in Australia named after her. There are two states (Victoria and Queensland), rivers, mountains, lakes, and almost anything which be named after a person has been affixed with “Victoria” or “Queen”. This statue is in the botanical gardens in Melbourne.